New insights into factors affecting piglet crushing and anti-crushing techniques

Abstract

Piglet crushing is one of the leading causes of pre-weaning piglet mortality, which accounts for more than 50% of live-born preweaning losses in the pig farming industry. This paper aims to review factors that influence piglet crushing. The behaviors of sows and piglets related to piglet crushing are also analyzed. In addition, potential methods to avoid piglet crushing and research trends on reducing piglet crushing are introduced. Data show that piglet crushing is affected by multiple factors that modulate behavior and health of piglets and sows. Although piglet crushing is affected by genetic factors, it may be difficult to reduce piglet crushing only by genetic control. In addition, there is a vast difference in the behavior between sows that crush no piglets and sows that crush piglets. Besides, piglet behavior (e.g. activeness) is also related with being crushed by sows. To reduce piglet crushing, a combination of adequate management, appropriate stall design, advanced confinement systems, development of anti-crushing devices, and improvement of breeding could be applied in pig farms. However, in order to achieve intelligent anti-crushing, more research needs to be conducted to precisely predict and recognize the occurrence of piglet crushing owing to different posture changes of sows. This review could provide a better understanding of factors related with piglet crushing, and contribute in improving the solutions for crushing minimization.